Cruise’s family resided in near-poverty, because Cruise’s father would not pay child support after his estrangement from the family when his son was eleven. Cities in which Tom lived included Ottawa, Ontario (where he attended Colonel By Secondary School), Louisville, Kentucky, Winnetka, Illinois and Wayne, New Jersey. In all, Cruise attended eight elementary schools and three high schools. He briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati and aspired to become a Catholic priest. He eventually graduated from Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey in 1980.

He was abused as a child by his father and bullied at school. At the age of twelve, he dropped his father’s last name. Cruise started acting after being sidelined from his high school’s wrestling team due to a knee injury. While injured, he successfully auditioned for a lead role in his high school’s production of “Guys and Dolls” and decided to become an actor after his success in the role.

Counted as one of the most successful movie stars in Hollywood, he is the only actor to have six consecutive $100 million plus blockbusters on his resume. Cruise teamed with producer Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions, which has co-produced several of Cruise’s films.

In 1990, 1991 and 1997, People magazine rated him among the 50 most beautiful people in the world. In 1995, Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history. Two years later, it ranked him among the top 5 movie stars of all time. In 2002 and 2003, he was rated by Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list.

In 2006, Premiere magazine established Cruis
e as Hollywood’s most powerful actor, as Cruise came in at number 13 on the magazines 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor. On 16 June 2006, Forbes magazine published ‘The Celebrity 100′, a list of the most powerful celebrities, in which Cruise came top.

Cruise was married to Nicole Kidman, they adopted two children, Isabella and Connor. He was then romantically involved with Penelope Cruise. Later he started dating Katie Holmes and 2 months later he proposed (after jumping on Oprah’s couch). Soon after, the couple got married in Italy and eventually had baby girl, Suri.

Cruise is arguably Hollywood’s most outspoken member of the Church of Scientology. Also,he earned his pilot’s license in 1994 and owns a World War II P-51 Mustang and Pitts Special S-2B stunt plane.

Cruise is active with charity. Working with his industry, they raised over $150 million for 9/11, and works with an AIDS nonprofit organization.